Provision of location information

ABSTRACT

An approach is provided for managing subscriber identity and location information within a mobile telecommunication network. Transmission of location data to a third party over a communication network is initiated, the location data being indicative of a geographical location of an apparatus. Transmission of an access request to a networking node including a destination application is initiated, the access request including a unique identifier of the apparatus.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 10/502,762, filed Oct.12, 2004, which is a National Stage of PCT/IB02/00847, filed Jan. 29,2002. The disclosure of the prior applications is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to the management of subscriber identityand location information within a mobile telecommunications network.

The invention has been developed for use within third generation (UMTS)networks and will be described primarily with reference to thisapplication. However, it will be appreciated that the invention may haveapplication under many other standards and protocols.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Communication systems providing mobility for the users thereof areknown. A well-known example of such mobile communication systems is thepublic land line mobile network (PLMN), of which cellular communicationsnetworks are an example. Another example is a mobile communicationsystem that is based, at least partially, on use of communicationsatellites.

In such systems, the mobile network apparatus and/or user equipment suchas a mobile station can be employed for provision of informationregarding the geographical location of the user equipment and thus theuser thereof. The position of mobile user equipment, and the equipment'suser, can be positioned by various techniques. For example, fairlyaccurate geographical location information can be obtained based on theknown satellite based GPS (Global Positioning System). More accuratelocation information can be obtained through differential GPStechniques.

Another possibility is to use a location service based on a cellulartelecommunications system. In this approach, the cells or similargeographically limited radio access entities and associated controllersof the communication system are utilised in production of at least arough estimate of the current location of the mobile user equipment. Toimprove the accuracy of the location information the communicationsystem may be provided with specific location measurement units thatprovide more accurate data concerning the location of user equipmentwithin the service area of the cellular system. It is also possible toascertain a geographical location when the mobile user equipment islocated within the coverage area of a visited or “foreign” network. Thevisited network may be made capable of transmitting the location of themobile user equipment back to the home network, e.g. to support servicesthat are based on location information or for the purposes of routingand charging. The production of data for the location determinationsdoes not form an essential element of the present invention, and is thusnot described in any greater detail herein.

The location data may be processed in a specific location service entitythat is implemented either within the cellular system or connectedthereto. The location data may also be processed in the user equipmentthat is provided with appropriate processing capacity. The locationservice entity provided by the communication system may serve differentclients via an appropriate interface.

The location information may be used for various purposes, such as forlocation of a mobile telephone that has made an emergency call, forlocating vehicles or given mobile subscribers and so on. In general, aclient such as a User Equipment or another entity wishing to receivelocation information regarding a User Equipment may send a request forsuch information to the location service provision entity. The locationservice provisioning entity will then process the request, obtain therequired data and generate an appropriate response.

An example of the provision of the location information by a PLMN isdescribed in more detail 3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)technical specifications, see e.g. 3GPP TS 23.271 version 4.2.0, titled“Functional stage 2 description of LCS”, June 2001.

According to the 3GPP specification a location service (LCS) serverentity referred to as a Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) isprovided for managing the location services. The GMLC is for gatheringand storing various data that may be used in provision of locationinformation for location service clients (LCS clients). The LCS Clientmay make use of that location information for variousservices/applications. A possible application comprises a LCS clientarranged to provide location information in response to a request fornon-call related location information. Such a request for locationinformation is referred to in the 3GPP specifications as a non-callrelated MT-LR (Mobile Terminated Location Request).

Use of a so-called “Authorized UE List” has been proposed. This listcontains Mobile Subscriber ISDN (MSISDN) numbers or groups of MSISDNsthat are authorised to initiate a location information provisionprocedure. That is, MSISDNs or groups of MSISDN are listed for which theLCS Client may issue a non-call related MT-LR. Separate lists of MSISDNsmay be associated with each distinct external or non-call related clientidentity.

The LCS Client who is external to the PLMN system may only be enabled tovalidly issue location information requests for those MSISDNs that arefound on the “Authorized UE List”. That is, the LCS client's request mayonly be responded for subscribers who subscribe to the location servicesprovided by the PLMN, as their MSISDNs would not otherwise appear on thelist.

Request from the LCS Client are authenticated based on a combination ofa Client ID and password stored in a LCS Client profile at the LSCserver (e.g. the GMLC) and authorized based on the “Authorized UE List”.That is, the LCS client is authorised to receive location informationfrom the GMLC entity if the requesting user equipment (UE) is found fromthe list.

Whilst provision of location information from the operator's network(location middleware) to an LCS client or other third party can providesome advantages to the user, there is also the issue of privacy to beconsidered. For example, passing the MSISDN to the LCS client or otherthird party would enable both identification of the user and theirlocation. Enabling access to such a combination of informationrepresents a serious privacy invasion for many users. It is thereforedesirable to provide a mechanism for controlling provision of suchinformation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, there is provided amethod of passing location data within a communication network to athird party, the location data being indicative of a geographicalposition of a mobile telecommunications device, the method including thesteps of:

-   -   determining the location data associated with the        telecommunications device;    -   receiving from the mobile telecommunications device an access        request including a destination application and a unique        identifier of the mobile telecommunications device;    -   determining an alias identifier for the mobile        telecommunications device;    -   replacing the unique identifier in the access request with an        alias identifier for the telecommunications device;    -   forwarding the access request to the destination application;        and    -   forwarding the location data with the alias to the destination        application, thereby enabling the destination application to        associate the access request with the location data.

Preferably, the location data is originally determined with reference tothe unique identifier, the method including the step of replacing theunique identifier with the alias identifier prior to forwarding thelocation data to the destination application.

Preferably, the alias is predetermined for the unique identifier. In analternative embodiment, a new alias is generated for each access request

In a preferred form, the method further includes the step of applying ahash function to the unique identifier to generate the alias identifierin the form of a fixed length hash value

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the access request is sent to aproxy server in the network, the proxy server being configured toreplace the identifying data with the alias.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided acommunication network apparatus configured to pass location data withina communication network to a third party, the location data beingindicative of a geographical position of a mobile telecommunicationsdevice, the communication network apparatus being configured to:

-   -   determine the location data associated with the        telecommunications device;    -   receive from the mobile telecommunications device an access        request including a destination application and a unique        identifier of the mobile telecommunications device;    -   determine an alias identifier for the mobile telecommunications        device;    -   replace the unique identifier in the access request with an        alias identifier for the telecommunications device;    -   forward the access request to the destination application; and    -   forward the location data with the alias to the destination        application, thereby enabling the destination application to        associate the access request with the location data.

Preferably, the location data is originally determined with reference tothe unique identifier, the communication network apparatus beingconfigured to replace the unique identifier with the alias identifierprior to forwarding the location data to the destination application.

Preferably, the alias is predetermined for the unique identifier. In analternative embodiment, a new alias is generated for each access request

Preferably, the communication network apparatus is configured to apply ahash function to the unique identifier to generate the alias identifierin the form of a fixed length hash value

In a particularly preferred form, the access request is sent to a proxyserver in the network, the proxy server being configured to replace theidentifying data with the alias.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way ofexample only, with reference to the accompanying diagram of

FIG. 1, which is a schematic overview of an embodiment of the invention,and with reference to the accompanying flowchart of

FIG. 2, which is a process for passing location information within acommunication network to a third party.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

It should be appreciated that even though the exemplifyingtelecommunications network shown and described in more detail uses theterminology of the third generation (3G) UMTS (Universal MobileTelecommunications System) public land mobile network (PLMN), theproposed solution can be used in any system providing mobilecommunications for users and some kind of location information service.Examples of other telecommunications systems include, without limitingto these, standards such as the GSM (Global System for Mobilecommunications) or various GSM based systems (such as GPRS: GeneralPacket Radio Service), AMPS (American Mobile Phone System) or DAMPS(Digital AMPS), IMT 2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications system2000), i-phone and so on.

Turning to the drawing, there is shown an arrangement in which basestations (not shown) of a cellular system 1 provide radio coverage areaswithin cells 2. Each radio coverage area 2 is typically served by a basestation. It should be appreciated that one cell may include more thanone base station site. A base station apparatus or site may also providemore than one cell. The shape and size of the cells 2 depend on theimplementation and may be different from the illustrated shapes. Theshape and size of the cells may also vary from cell to cell. It shouldbe appreciated that in some systems the base station may be referred toas Node B.

User equipment in the form of mobile station (MS) 6 is also shown. Itshall be appreciated that typically a number of MSs will be insimultaneous communication with each base station, although for the sakeof clarity only a single MS 6 is shown in this case. Each base stationis arranged to transmit signals to and receive signals from the MS 6 viaa wireless interface, as is well understood by those skilled in the art.Likewise, the MS 6 is able to transmit signals to and receive signalsfrom the base station.

Each of the base stations is connected to an access network controllersuch as a radio network controller (RNC) of a UMTS terrestrial radioaccess network (UTRAN). The radio network controller may be connected toappropriate core network entities of the cellular system, such as a MSC(mobile switching center) and/or SGSN (serving general packet radioservice support node), via a suitable interface arrangement. These,however, do not form an essential element of the invention and are thusnot explained in any greater detail.

The location of a mobile user equipment may vary in time as the userequipment is free to move within the coverage area of a base station andalso from coverage to coverage area. Modern communication systems arecapable of providing information regarding the geographical location ofan MS within the coverage area thereof. The geographical location may bedefined on the basis of the position of the mobile station relative tothe base station(s) of the mobile telecommunications network. Thegeographical location of the user equipment may be defined, for example,in X and Y co-ordinates or in latitudes and longitudes. It is alsopossible to define the location of the base stations and/or mobilestations in vertical directions.

In FIG. 1 the location service (LCS) functionality of the communicationsystem is provided by a Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) entity 10.The GMLC location service node 10 is for gathering and storing data thatis required for the provision of the location information. The locationservice node 10 is arranged to receive via appropriate interface meansinformation concerning the location of the mobile user equipment fromthe cellular system.

The cellular system may be provided with various different means forprocessing information gathered from the cells and/or some otherparameters and/or for computing by processor means appropriatecalculations for determining and outputting the geographical location ofthe target user equipment. The location information may be obtained byusing one or more of the appropriate location techniques. At least apart of the location information may be provided based on informationprovided by system that is separate from the communication system, suchas by means of the Global Positioning System (GPS) or similar. Sincethere are various possibilities how to implement the location servicesin the cellular system and since the invention is not dependent on theused location determination technology, these are not be described inany greater detail herein.

The location service node may be implemented in the core network bymeans of a LCS server entity 10. The LCS server 10 is arranged toreceive location information from the radio access network viaappropriate controller entities such as the MSC and/or SGSN connected bythe appropriate interface means to the access network.

This location service node may provide the location information in apredefined manner to a destination application 12. Such destinationapplications can be any entity that makes use of the locationinformation, and can be considered a logical functional entity that maymake a request to the location service entity 10 for the locationinformation of one or more target user equipment.

As shown by FIG. 1, the destination application 12 can be external tothe communication network 1, the client entity 12 being provided in anASP domain 4. The destination application can alternatively be aninternal client (ILCS) residing in any entity or node (including amobile station) within the communication system 1.

The destination application is entitled to receive at least some degreeof information concerning the location (or location history) of the MS6. The particular requirements and characteristics of a destinationapplication are typically known to the location service server of thecommunication system by its LCS client subscription profile.

The location service server (LCS) 10 provides a platform supportinglocation based services in parallel with other telecommunicationservices such as speech, data, messaging, other teleservices, userapplications and supplementary services. The LCS 10 may thus beconfigured to provide the destination application 12, on request orperiodically, the current or most recent geographic location (ifavailable) of the target user equipment or, if the location fails, anerror indication and optionally the reason for the failure. A moredetailed description of a LCS entity that may be employed in theembodiments of can be found e.g. from the above referenced 3GPPtechnical specification No. 3GPP TS23.271.

It will be appreciated that the LCS server will usually be supported byother middleware such as a server 13.

A network entity in the form of a proxy server 20 is provided forproviding an alias identifier to replace the unique identity of thesubscriber. The proxy server 20 can interface with profile data 22 andan ID translator 24. The profile data includes subscriber informationincluding the subscriber's MSISDN.

There is also provided an ID pool/generator 26 that supplies orgenerates alias identifiers when required. In some cases it is desirableto provide a one-off temporary alias that is used only once for anaccess request sent from the mobile station. In this case, the alias canbe drawn from a pool of available aliases stored within the IDtranslator. Alternatively, an alias can be generated in a random orpseudo random way, as long as there is no risk of duplication for anyother active sessions with the destination application of interest.

In other cases, the alias identifier for a given MSISDN is fixed inrelation to each potential destination application. Such permanent aliasidentifiers can be generated prior to being needed, or can be generatedthe first time they are required. The particular alias allocated to agiven mobile device can be generated or sourced in any of a number ofways that will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art. However,the preferred method is to apply a hash function to the MSISDN of themobile device to generate a unique fixed length hash that can beassociated with that MSISDN in the long term.

As depicted in FIG. 2, in step 201, the location of a mobile device isdetermined by one of the above discussed techniques. In use, attemptingto access the application destination results in the proxy serverreceiving an access request from the mobile device, in step 203. Theaccess request can be in any suitable form, such as an HTTP GET orPOST-request for a specific URL (which is registered as an LCS ClientApplication with the proxy server 20). The subscriber's identify(MSISDN) can be included as a parameter of a POST request.Alternatively, it can be included within the HTTP header in form suchas: &subsident=+358401234567. The request also includes the access data.

In step 205, the proxy server obtains an appropriate alias identifierfor the circumstances from the subscriber's profile, or, if necessary,from the ID translator/generator. The proxy server then replaces theISDN in the access request with the appropriate alias identifier, instep 207. In step 209, the access request is provided to the destinationapplication.

The location middleware also communicates with profile and/or IDtranslator/generator to ascertain the alias of the MSISDN. The aliasidentifier is then added to the location data that has been determinedfor the mobile device and provided to the destination application, instep 211.

In the above the identifier was described as being on the MobileSubscriber ISDN (MSISDN) number of the user. Other possibilities for theunique identifier include the IMSI, TIMSI, password, and so on. Inprinciple the identifier may be any anything as long as it can beprocessed by the PLMN system so that the verification can be made basedon it.

Responses by the LCS client 12 to location information requests may havethe form of simple coordinate (x, y) information or contain more valueadded services like a reverse-geocoded response provided with a streetname or a map reference. The response may even comprise a map and apointer on the map.

It should be appreciated that the elements of the location servicefunctionality may be implemented anywhere in the telecommunicationssystem. The location service implementation may also be distributedbetween several elements of the system. Furthermore, although the abovedescribes embodiments employing a specific LCS client node, this is nota necessity. The request for location information may be addresseddirectly to a location service entity of the communication system, suchas to the GMLC or any other element associated with the provision oflocation information. If a LCS client is used, it does not need to be anexternal element, but may also be implemented within the communicationnetwork and/or be run the by the operator of the network.

It should be appreciated that whilst embodiments of the presentinvention have been described in relation to user equipment such asmobile stations, embodiments of the present invention are applicable toany other suitable type of user equipment.

Although the invention has been described with reference to a specificexample, it will be appreciated that the invention can be embodied inmany other forms.

1. An apparatus comprising: a processor; and at least one memoryincluding computer program code, the at least one memory and thecomputer program code configured to, with the processor, cause theapparatus to perform at least the following, initiate transmission oflocation data over a communications network to a party external to thenetwork, the location data being indicative of a geographical locationof the apparatus, and initiate transmission of an access request to anetworking node including a destination application, the access requestincluding a unique identifier, wherein the unique identifier is replacedwith an alias prior to being received at the networking node.
 2. Theapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the unique identifier is amobile subscriber integrated services digital network number (MSISDN).3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the access request isreceived at a proxy server prior to being received at the networkingnode, the proxy server being configured to replace the unique identifierwith the alias and to forward the access request including the alias tothe networking node.
 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein theprocessor is further configured to initiate access to a middlewareapplication identified by a uniform resource locator, the middlewareapplication being configured to provide the alias, wherein the uniqueidentifier is the alias.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, whereinthe communications network is a general packet radio service (GPRS) or atime division multiple access (TDMA) network and the processor isfurther configured to initiate transmission of the access request overthe communications network via a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN). 6.The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communications networkis a third generation (3G) network and the processor is furtherconfigured to initiate transmission of the access request over a packetswitched data network (PSDN).
 7. The apparatus according to claim 1,wherein the destination application is a location service (LCS) client.8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the unique identifier isof the apparatus.
 9. An apparatus comprising: processing meansconfigured to initiate transmission of location data over acommunications network to a party external to the network, the locationdata being indicative of a geographic location of the apparatus, whereinthe processing means is further configured to initiate transmission ofan access request to a networking node including a destinationapplication, the access request including a unique identifier, whereinthe unique identifier is replaced with an alias prior to being receivedat the networking node.
 10. The apparatus according to claim 9, whereinthe unique identifier is of the apparatus.
 11. A method comprising:initiating transmission of location data over a communications networkto a party external to the network, the location data being indicativeof a geographical location of an apparatus; and initiating transmissionof an access request to a networking node including a destinationapplication, the access request including a unique identifier, whereinthe unique identifier is replaced with an alias prior to being receivedat the networking node.
 12. The method according to claim 11, whereinthe unique identifier is a mobile subscriber integrated services digitalnetwork number (MSISDN).
 13. The method according to claim 11, whereinthe access request is received at a proxy server prior to being receivedat the networking node, the proxy server being configured to replace theunique identifier with the alias and to forward the access requestincluding the alias to the networking node.
 14. The method according toclaim 11, further comprising: initiating access to a middlewareapplication identified by a uniform resource locator, the middlewareapplication being configured to provide the alias, wherein the uniqueidentifier is the alias.
 15. The method according to claim 11, whereinthe destination application is a location service (LCS) client.
 16. Themethod according to claim 11, wherein the unique identifier is of theapparatus.